Paul Farmer appointed as UN Deputy Special Envoy to Haiti
OpenForum | August 13, 2009 | 3 Comments
On August 11, Bill Clinton announced his appointment of Paul Farmer as the UN Deputy Special Envoy for Haiti. Clinton, who was appointed as the UN Special Envoy to Haiti in May of this year, said that Farmer’s “credibility both among the people of Haiti and in the international community will be a tremendous asset to our efforts as we work with the government and people of Haiti to improve health care, strengthen education, and create economic opportunity.”
This appointment will complement Farmer’s already extensive involvement in Haiti. In 1983, Farmer was part of the group that started a community-based health project in Cange, a project that lead to the establishment of the Clinique Bon Sauveur in 1985 and the founding of Partners in Health (PIH) in 1987. As Deputy Special Envoy, Farmer will aid Clinton in his efforts to support social and economic development in Haiti.
In addition to his work with PIH, Farmer is also Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Editor-in-Chief of the FXB Center’s journal, Health and Human Rights.
Comments
3 Responses to “Paul Farmer appointed as UN Deputy Special Envoy to Haiti”
Dale Copps
Coming on the heels of the collapse in the negotiations for Dr. Farmer to head USAID, this seems like a consolation prize of sorts. Dr. Farmer IS the U.S. presence in Haiti, as far as many of us are concerned, and to characterize him as “deputy” anything is to trivialize his importance there, especially when he is deputized to an official of a government which has failed so miserably to be of any use to this hapless nation.
Laurien
I wish we have many People like Paul Farmer, Josh Ruxin and such, people who are willing to go far and beyond.
I am from Africa, where the distance between rich and poor is growing more and we need to act quickly.
Sarah Bundick
Dale, I think it’s important to note that Dr. Farmer’s appointment makes him more than a United States presence in Haiti; he will now represent the United Nations as well. In appointing him to this position, Bill Clinton acted as an official of the UN, not the US. With peacekeeping (such as that through MINUSTAH) having been the major UN presence in Haiti recently, it is nice to see the UN recognize the value of health system strengthening in general — and Farmer’s work in particular — in Haiti.
While you’re not the only one to suggest that Farmer’s Deputy Special Envoy appointment is a “consolation prize” (Deirdre Shesgreen of the Infectious Diseases Center for Global Health Policy also did so on the Center’s Science Speaks blog), others involved or interested in global health and development have thought from the beginning that Farmer would better continue to serve the world’s poor outside of the US government (see, for example, Alanna Shaikh’s open letter on the Change.org Global Health blog). Ultimately, we’ll need to trust the judgment of Dr. Farmer in accepting this position.
-Sarah Bundick, OpenForum blogger